Mother And Child Saved From Paris Bank Fire During Yellow Vest Riot

Surreal footage has emerged of a bank going up in flames after France’s Yellow Vests were back in full swing on Saturday following a brief lull at the end of President Macron’s unsuccessful ‘great debate’ – during which thousands of town halls were conducted over a two-month period in the hopes of solving national issues through citizen debates.

But now protests turned to riots are quickly returning to being potentially deadly with a number of dramatic close calls on Saturday.

Violence broke out on the Champs-Elysees Paris, where Paris riot police clashed with protesters, using tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowd, but things got dangerous and nearly deadly for civilians living in the area, as the AP reports:

A bank has been set ablaze as French yellow vest protesters clash with police in Paris and firefighters had to rescue a mother and her child as the fire threatened to engulf their floor.

The mother and child reportedly barely escaped the massive flames raging out of control as they leaped higher into the residential space above.

Florian Lointier, spokesman for Paris’ firefighters, related the following details to the AP:

The fire in the bank, which was on the ground floor of a seven-story residential building near the Champs-Elysees Avenue, was later extinguished. Lointier said a mother and her child were saved from the flames on the second floor and other residents were safely evacuated.

In addition to the life-threatening fires, rioters targeted luxury corporate brands, smashing and pillaging stores such as Hugo Boss and Lacoste, as well as a posh eatery called Fouquet’s.